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The southern hemisphere winter is over, and as the Antarctic warms up, the members of the BELARE (Belgian Antarctic Research) 2010-2011 expedition have headed to Antarctica to re-open the Princess Elisabeth Station for its first complete “zero emission” season. Departing from Cape Town (South Africa), they landed at Utsteinen on November 11th.

Later on in the season, the icebreaker Mary Arctica, which has already left from Zeebrugge with 13 containers containing 67 tons of material, food, fuel, and scientific equipment, will resupply the team to last until the end of February.

Upon arrival at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica, the team quickly started clearing the entrance to the technical areas and the garages, before starting other activities. With their field training now completed, the members of the BELISSIMA project (glaciology) will be heading to the coast to makes various measurements in an effort to better understand the interactions between the ocean and the ice at the contact point with the ice shelf.

Later on in the season, these scientists will be joined by the teams from the MICROMETA, SAMBA, GIANT/LISSA, BELATMOS, HYDRANT, and BELDIVA projects.

Go to the station's website

The IPF was invited to attend the 2010 Sibos financial conference in Amsterdam by organizer and long-time partner, SWIFT. A commitment had been taken at the last Sibos event in Hong Kong to make this year’s event as green as possible. The IPF worked closely with SWIFT on this project as part of the continued partnership.

With a record 9,000 attendees, SWIFT also ensured that sustainability was on the agenda, with a paperless conference stand area, as well as actions in recycling and generally reducing the carbon footprint of the event. On the last day, all reusable material and non-perishable goods were collected by SWIFT from all corporate booths to be given to a local charity.

IPF Executive Director Thierry Touchais facilitated a session entitled “Sustainability: Doing Good Is Good For Business”, which, following presentations from Corporate Sustainability managers from some of the world’s leading banks, opened into a discussion about the need to share ideas across the financial industry and even consider standards for future sustainable action at a sectoral level.

Another exercise run throughout the conference was called “Long Now Finance”, which looked at the future of banking up to 2080 from various angles including legal, economic, technical, social and environmental. Mr. Touchais gave a contribution which sparked some interesting dialogue on future scenarios of energy and trading markets. The theme of “Long Now Finance” was further addressed in the closing plenary by leading futurist, Paul Saffo.

The Sibos conference also gave the IPF a chance to present its milestone achievement  – Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station – and its major new project, the Polaris Climate Change Observatory – to new potential partners. There was also interest in the postcard competition where attendees were given a chance to receive a postcard sent from Antarctica.

“Sibos is a unique open window into the financial community for the IPF, and we are happy to walk with our partner SWIFT down the path to sustainability. Moderating a session with banking and industry leaders, taking part in the launch of an industry-wide seed initiative for sustainable practices, contributing to the ‘Long Now’ of finance sessions, meeting people from many walks of life – all made Sibos a very special event which will continue to help us reach our goals of a zero emission society in the future,” said Thierry Touchais.

Next year’s Sibos will be held in Toronto and there have already been calls for continued discussions on how the finance industry as a whole can look further and start working together for a sustainable future on top of simply profit.

IPF has been invited to attend the world’s premier financial services event – Sibos – being held in Amsterdam from October 25-29, 2010.

Organised by long time IPF partner SWIFT, this year's conference will be the greenest ever, in large part thanks to the IPF's collaborative work with SWIFT in creating a more sustainable event. Delegates and exhibitors are being encouraged to lower their carbon footprint, and IPF has been asked to also speak at the event.

Keeping in line with our ethos of "educate to understand, understand to act", the IPF will be helping to raise awareness and start debate about making the financial services industry more green and building relationships with corporates. CEO Thierry Touchais will be representing IPF in many different sessions, including making two speeches about IPF at the Innotribe forum, moderating a session about "sustainability - doing good is good for business" and also speaking as an "Environmental Driver" in the "Long Now" sessions looking at the future of the world.

The IPF has also devised a unique contest for delegates – a competition for collectors and their children - A Postcard from Antarctica.

The Princess Elisabeth Station is about to open for the polar season. Alain Hubert, co-founder of the IPF, and a group of scientists and specialists, will be traveling to Antarctica in November and staying there until February next year. There is a post office within the station – and the IPF is offering the chance to have a postcard sent postmarked from Antarctica.

Only open to Sibos delegates, interested people must come to visit the IPF staff at the SWIFT exhibition stand and leave their business card.

Cards will be drawn twice a day, so there will be 10 chances to win an official Postcard from Antarctica.

The president of the International Polar Foundation and famous polar explorer Alain Hubert attended the inauguration of the new “Métis” building at the Collège du Biéreau in Louvain-la-Neuve on October 8^th. The new passive building, built with environmentally-friendly materials, houses a kindergarten and was equipped with high-end low-consumption equipment.

A major support of the project, Mr Alain Hubert explained the role of the first “zero emission” station ever built, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. Mr Hubert then thrilled the children with an explanation of the analysis of ice cores and how looking for traces of pollen or gasses can help reconstruct the past climate and predict future changes.

On October 14th & 15th, the European Parliament hosted the Arctic Futures Symposium, an event organized by the International Polar Foundation in collaboration with the Aspen Institute and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. The symposium, which welcomed over a hundred experts from North America (US and Canada), Europe (Arctic countries and others) and Australia included four workshops which aimed to "contribute to the informal dialogue between the EU and the Arctic countries", said International Polar Foundation President, Alain Hubert on the opening day.

With about 200 delegates attending and various high-profile hosts featured, the plenary session of the second day of the symposium brought interesting conclusions which will help improve governance of the Arctic. On the second day of the event, HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco highlighted the contributions of the scientists on a better understanding of the challenges at hand in the Arctic. While underlining the toll paid by the Arctic as a consequence of the world’s excesses, the Prince expressed his hopes for the Cancun Climate meeting to be held in December.

In his speech to the plenary session on the second day of the symposium, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy underlined the change of mentality regarding the Arctic and the recognition of the region’s importance to Europe and the rest of the world. He further lauded the EU’s contribution to assessing the impact of climate change on the Arctic and its efforts to engage dialogue with the indigenous people.

A changing Arctic and the threats and opportunities that this brings were openly discussed during the workshops held on the first day of the symposium. The sessions called for an urgent assessment of the issues raised by the development of several areas of the Arctic, particularly regarding the increasing commercial and tourism maritime activities. The discussions showed that the opportunities the changing Arctic offer should be approached with caution. While none denied that development in the Arctic is a natural evolution, the unique situation of the region and the global consequences stemming from changes occurring there call for further dialogue and improved governance regimes. This dialogue, the participants also stressed, should include the indigenous peoples who live in the Arctic.  And while there should be a focus on the preservation of fragile ecosystems, any future discussion will need to take into account the rights of the Arctic circumpolar nations as well as indigenous peoples regarding the exploitation of the natural and living resources of the region.

Development will bring both threats and opportunities, and seizing the opportunities involves a responsibility of managing and handling the threats. While development in the Arctic is inevitable, most participants of the symposium agreed that certain matters needed to be investigated and that the establishment of marine reserves was one potential option for the future.

Overall, the Arctic Futures Symposium was a timely gathering of scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders presenting their experiences and research and having the opportunity to debate and understand the complicated issues facing the Arctic.

From October 2^nd to 17^th, the general public will have the opportunity to discover the “Venturi Antarctica” at the Mondial de l’Automobile in Paris. Partnering with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the International Polar Foundation collaborated with car manufacturer Venturi from Monaco to develop the “Venturi Antarctica”, an electric vehicle to be used in the extreme conditions of Antarctica.

Once delivered to the BELARE team the vehicle will allow scientists and other crew members at the Princess Elisabeth Station to go into the field “emissions-free” from the 2011-2012 Antarctic season onwards. In order to develop this unique vehicle, Venturi had to use all its know-how to come up with solutions to the challenging Antarctic environment. Conceived for use in temperatures down to - 50 °C, the vehicle will be directed by “joysticks” for greater precision. Weighing only 1.200kg, the “Venturi Antarctica” is extremely light, and has the ability of transporting up to a ton of staff and materials over 150km at a maximum speed of 40km/h.

Designed and built to fit in the global objective of “zero emission” pursued by the Princess Elisabeth Station, the “Venturi Antarctica” was conceived to connect on the station’s micro “smart grid” and will thus adapt its charging time to the priorities set by the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). This new piece of automotive technology further illustrates the feasibility of a “zero emission” target, even in the most extreme conditions.

On September 17th, 2010, the community center “Bonnevie” and the association “l’ESPOIR”, officially inaugurated their project on Rue Fin in Molenbeek (Brussels) in the presence of Mrs Evelyne Huytebroeck, Minister for the Environment, Energy, Urban Regeneration and Aid to Individuals and Mr Alain Hubert, polar explorer and President of the International Polar Foundation. The project to build 14 passive duplex apartments was designed by architect Damien Carnoy and has involved the future inhabitants and owners of the apartments from its inception.

Officially supported by Alain Hubert, the building “l’Espoir” was twinned with the Princess Elisabeth Station in Antarctica on June 9th, 2008 and selected as an “exemplary building” by the IBGE (Institut Bruxellois de Gestion de l’Environnement – Brussels Institute for Environmental Management). After construction came to an end in March 2010, the 14 families saw their dream become reality as they moved into their new passive homes in June 2010.

Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th of July 2010, IPF-Switzerland participated in the eighth edition of "La Nuit de la Science" in Geneva, a very popular event organised every two years by the "Musée d’histoire des sciences".

Located in a beautiful garden, near the lake, "La Nuit de la Science" aims to create a link between science, the scientists and the public. The theme of this year edition was "Extreme and Limits".

The IPF was invited by the Association La Libellule, in their beautiful Pavillon Plantamour, to present an exhibition about the poles and climate change, based on the Class Zero Emission workshop.

Despite a slight decrease in the general affluence compared to previous years (due to the heat wave and a particularly busy cultural agenda), the public was curious and enthusiastic to discover the IPF exhibition. The 3D puzzles of the Arctic and Antarctic, together with small and funny scientific experiments were a must for the kids. Parents discovered the work of the International Polar Foundation and were fascinated by the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station.

The CZE exhibit will remain open to the public in the Pavillon Plantamour until the end of July.

On June 9th 2010, Schneider Electric organized a VIP Event in Ostend. The event, in which the IPF participated, started with an academic meeting that was opened by Jean-Paul Brees, President of Schneider Electric in Belgium.

During the academic meeting, a film related to the experience of Jean and Wim, two engineers from Schneider Electric who took an active part in installing the energy management solutions at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica polar station. Alain Hubert, the co-founder and President of the International Polar Foundation, then stepped up to talk about how the research station project had been developing since its inauguration at Tours & Taxi in September 2007.

After the academic meeting, the guests were invited to a drinks reception organized in a ‘Market Place’ where those attending could visit the dozen or so stands and directly discover solutions for all of the markets which Schneider Electric covers, including energy, infrastructure, building, industry, data and residential centers.

Saturday 5th of June 2010, IPF-Switzerland was invited to participate in the World Environment Day organised by the United Nations in Geneva. An exhibition stand held by the swiss IPF team explained the Foundation’s activities to the public.

This event, organised by the United Nations Office in Geneva in collaboration with United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Geneva Environmental Network (GEN), was dedicated to Biodiversity, in the scope of the International Year of Biodiversity 2010. IPF-Switzerland presented different IPF educational tools covering this theme.

The bright sunshine motivated numerous people, who discovered the IPF’s projects and activities as well as the event’s other stands and activities. The visit of the United Nations Office park (the Ariana Park), which was exceptionally open to public for the day, was particularly popular.